(Last updated: November 2024)

Data collected from students at Freie Universität Berlin are an important feature of research and teaching. Clear guidelines and close cooperation between students and instructors are essential for complying with the legal requirements for the collection and use of such data.

Data Collection during the Enrollment Process

Students’ personal data are processed centrally for various purposes as part of their course of study. This includes processing for purposes of enrollment, administration of the course of study, registration renewal, registration for courses and examinations, university admissions, assignment of a university email account, leaves of absence, interruption or termination of the course of study, admissions of guest auditors and auditing students. These data may also be processed in an anonymized form for university research and development projects.

Information about these central data processing activities can be found in the Data Protection Notice.

Data Collection in Courses

Most data collection and processing concerning participation in courses takes place centrally (see above: “Data Collection during the Enrollment Process”). If additional data are collected as part of a course, it must be determined whether this requires another legal basis and a Data Information Notice for students. Please consult the external data protection officer about cases like this at datenschutz@fu-berlin.de. 

Data Collection for Research Projects

General Information on Data Collection within the Context of Research Projects

The personal data collected from students for a course does not need to be entered into a record of data processing by instructors unless there is an (automated) procedure implemented for doing so.

This depends on the requirements of the course and must be assessed by the instructor.